How to set goals for 2020 and how to achieve them?

Hello my dear readers,

As the new year is not waiting for it, this blog post is all about how to set goals for the new year. Setting goals is not only important in your professional life, but in both professional and private.

When I started this blog last year in 2015, it was more a try out than an actual decision. Now that I am blogging since 4 years and 5 months I am at a point that I have a better understanding of what is realistic and at what hight I can set my goals.

If you want to grow professionally or privately it is important that you set yourself goals and divide them into smaller milestones.

If you have important exams to write, to organize your own business or project, or if you just want to change things in your private life to be more efficient and have more time for what you love, the best way to do this is to set a final goal and divide it into smaller ones.

This is also important to actively measure your success and improve from your mistakes. If you don’t set a specific goal, you will work way harder to get to where you want to be.

Although it is important to set goals, not every goal is efficient and you should frase them into becoming SMART goals, that are not set too high, but even not to easy to reach. We all like a challenge, don’t we?

Before explaining you what exactly SMART goals are, I would like to tell you about objectives. Now you will think that objectives and goals are the same thing, but this is not 100% correct.

Goals are small things you are aiming for, that you can actively work on.

Objectives have a bigger size of achievements to be completed before achieving a full objective. It is the bigger picture of why you set goals. It is the where you want to arrive in 1 year, or maybe 2! Let’s say for example you want to become a fashion designer. Great choice, THIS is your objective ! Now you have to ask yourself how will you achieve this? You have to set smaller goals. These could be for example 1. make an internship in a sewing studio, 2. get into the fashion design university 3. accomplish the university 4. find a good job and learn from the best 5. start to create your own label.

Now you have understood me, right? Okay so the first thing you should do is to:

1. Write Objectives:

   Get a piece of paper and a pen, and write down whatever you want from your life. This could be a dream job, an hobby you want to learn further, or places you want to visit. Just put anything here, that comes to your mind! After this brainstorm moment, start to put all the similar ideas into one group. This is easiest done by colouring them.

   Now that you have created your groups, you have to name them. There are maybe 3-5 different words or sentences that need to be fit into one objective. Name it ! And don’t forget, you are talking about the bigger picture, not just 2016 !

2. Prioritise

   The first step is done, now it is time to prioritise: Which of these objectives do you retain more important than the other ones? I think it is important to focus on one to maximum 3 objectives.

3. Divide the objectives into SMART goals

   First of all what exactly does SMART goals mean? It means, that each single goal that you are setting is:

   S= Specific (It will answer the main w-questions: who will do it, what will be done, where will it be done, when will it be done?)
   M=Measurable (How will you know if you have reached the goal? set a goal, that is measurable!)
   A=Achievable (The goal should be challenging but achievable)
   R=Relevant (Always have in mind the bigger picture, is the goal actively relevant to your objectives?)
   T=Time-bound (Fix a final date for your goal !)

So the hardest part is already done. You have set goals, that are achievable, of use and measurable ! Congrats 🙂

BUT now the question is how will you keep the goals and actually work on them? Let’s start with

1. Creating a schedule

   Let’s say you have a goal that will end within one year, so at the end of 2016. In order to be able to actually work on the goal, and not wait for the 15. of December to figure out, that you will not make it on time, divide also this goal into smaller steps. P.e if I want to achieve 6.000 new Instagram followers this year, I am pointing to a monthly reach of 500 new Instagram followers. I could also most probably take additional help from growth services like Celebian (read real reviews here), to increase the followers count, if things do not go as planned. This might help me to actually measure time by time if I am getting closer to my goal and if I haven’t achieved the schedule of the first month, I have to work harder the second month to get back on track. Nowadays there can be many ways that could allow someone to buy Instagram followers. This might be viewed positively as increasing followers base could be advantageous for young artists. I might consider taking that approach as well. nevertheless, I intend to work hard to get to my desired follower count, but if not, I might again have to look at best sites to buy Instagram followers. Nonetheless, I want to work as hard as I can right now.

   Hope this helps you to focus and to not loose track of your goals.

   Here you can find the tips on hot to get organised!

2. Tell your friends about it

   This is one of the things that help me a lot to stay behind my goals: I tell all my friends about what I want to achieve. Once you have actually spoken it out loud and know that other people will know if you reach your goals or not, this gives at least me an extra motivation to keep what I have promised. You could also do this through your social media apps for which you might need a reliable internet connection (to know more, click on windstream internet services). Once you have it, you’ll be able to see how your friends react to your post, which may help you stay motivated to reach your goals.

   Try it, it definitely won’t hurt 😉

3. Start NOW

   …and with now I mean NOW ! Don’t let the procrastination let you keep from achieving your goals. Yes, you might also make it in only 6 months, but isn’t it easier in 12? I have this big issue that I am travelling so often that I always lose my gym routine, again and again over the year. When I get back after my travels I am always trying to say, okay the month is nearly over, I will start next week. And this is what brings you to say the same the week after. If you want to do something, and if you really want to achieve something then just start it right away. Trust me, it hurts way less and gives you an amazing feeling as soon as you know you are a step closer to what you want to achieve.

4. Learn from your mistakes

   The last part of how to keep on focusing on your goals is to actively measure your achievements by the passing by of one period (p.e. the first month). See if you have reached your goal and if so, try to understand why you reached it and copy this for the next period. If you haven’t reached it, or you had big difficulties in reaching it, then try to understand why and figure out possible steps to make it become easier for you during the next period. This will help you develop and get to know you over the time.

I hope my simple tips on how to set goals and how to actually achieve them will help you with your own goal setting! I’d be curious what kind of goals have you set yourself for 2016? Or what objectives are you working behind?

Best,

Be-Sparkling